Hardwood Flooring Colours | Light Vs Dark

With many different colour options available, let’s look at the pros and cons of dark hardwood flooring Vs light hardwood floors.

Whilst there are many advantages for having a specific type of colour (which we will touch on further into this article), there really is no one specific colour that’s suits all.

It really does come down to your own personal choice or preference.

Most likely the choice of timber floor colour will depend upon your furniture choices; however it’s important to remember there will be people who have similar colour tastes as some that don’t.

To make life a little easier, we recommend asking yourself some of these following questions to factor what colour may be suitable for your property:

What is your home and décor style?

Are your room sizes large or small?

How much light enters into the rooms?

What are your wall colours or preferences?

How often do you clean your floors?

Do you have pets?

What do you like and don’t like?

Other considerations to be made are new trends in timber floor board sizes.

The new trends are seeing wider, longer boards. Carlisle Wide Plank Floors makes mention that “The design trends today is to minimise the number of joins on the floor, which is only accomplished using wider, ,longer floor boards”.

When considering your colour choice, make sure to determine how it would look in the latest trends of wider, longer boards.

At this stage you may already have a particular type of colour in mind…light or dark.

There are many pros and cons to both, and it’s important to consider them all.

Advantage & Disadvantages with Light or Dark Coloured Hardwood Floors

Which shows up scratches more – Light or Dark?

Without proper care both light & dark flooring will scratch, however it is more common for dark hardwood flooring to show scratches more.

Where dark colours are present, they’re usually given that appearance through the use of timber stains.

When scratches occur, the underlying natural timber colour shows through and contrasts the darker top level stain.

When planning for a timber floor refurbish it’s important to make note of the high traffic areas and conclude how that may have an effect on wear & tear as well as unsightly scratches.

Pets in the house will almost certainly scratch a polished hardwood timber floor, so keep this in mind when deciding between light or dark colours.

What shades of colours are best suited to pets – particularly dogs?

As just previously mentioned, pets in the house will scratch hardwood flooring

…In particular large dogs.

Dogs typically like to claw into the ground surface for grip.

If you have family pets in the house, consider light coloured flooring, otherwise you may need to negotiate with your hardwood timber floor installer to apply additional layers of the clear polyurethane top coating.

Which costs more – dark or light hardwood floors?

The cost of the project will depend upon numerous circumstances; however there are two factors to consider when comparing prices against dark or light colours.

And they are:

Pre-finished or raw timber

Pre-finished hardwood floors (commonly called engineered flooring) will have similar costs between light or dark colours though they’re may be a slight difference between brands.

Raw timber hardwood species prices vary across the range.

In most cases natural light coloured timber species are less expensive than their darker counterparts. Typically the requirement of colour stain increases the value.

Other options include white-wash or grey stains. These will have a profound effect in the increase in price.

Conclusion

In 2017 dark floors are in trend.

They’re more stylish and can hide minor imperfections. White décor is very popular amongst interior designers, and the darker hardwood floors compliment them brilliantly to provide a fresh and open feel to any space.

Still having seconds thoughts on colour choice for your next flooring project?